Five policemen and two employees of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank were killed on Monday when some gunmen from militant organisation Hizbul Mujahideen struck a bank van carrying money in a village in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district.

A group of heavily armed militants began firing at a bank van that was returning to Kulgam district headquarters from Damhal Hanji Pora on Monday afternoon, a policeman said.

While four policemen and the two bank employees — the bank’s security guard one of them — were killed instantly, the fifth policeman died at a hospital later, the policeman said.However, it remains unclear if the van was robbed. “We have received seven dead bodies so far, including 5 policemen and two bank employees,” a doctor at Kulgam district hospital said.

Among the policemen killed is an Assistant Sub Inspector of Police.

The militants reportedly took four service rifles belonging to the policemen, but this is still unverified.

Hizbul Mujahideen later claimed the attack. A spokesperson from the militant group told a local news agency that its fighters had taken with four weapons from the scene of attack. Several bank robberies have been reported in the Valley since November last year — the last one a failed attempt at a bank in Anantnag two days ago, also at Jammu and Kashmir Bank — with police citing the central government’s measure to scrap old high-value banknotes and introducing new ones in November as the possible reason for the sudden spurt. (With PTI inputs)